Money laundring.

@coded_artist all of the games on the left look and play substantially better too.

@beardalaxy @coded_artist The Xenoblade games are absolutely gigantic, and none of them have credits breaking even the 10-minute mark. Xenoblade 1's was barely over 4 minutes.

Western AAA Gaming is a fucking joke.

@ChristiJunior @beardalaxy @coded_artist
Monolith Soft is also well-known for having reasonable working hours and avoiding crunch. Work smarter, not harder.

@ArdainianRight @beardalaxy @coded_artist Really makes you wonder what a lot of people in the industry are even doing, though Monolith Soft might still be small enough that they're not that well-known outside of Nintendo and JRPG communities, explaining why their practices aren't being widely emulated.

@ChristiJunior @ArdainianRight @beardalaxy @coded_artist i dont think monolith does anything special just that most modern devs have lost the ability to properly plan and manage time
Measure twice, cut once

@Vidmastereon @ArdainianRight @ChristiJunior @coded_artist yeah you gotta wonder if all this crunch is the result of people not actually doing their jobs until it's too late. I wouldn't be surprised with how focused on things other than the game itself they seem to be.

@beardalaxy @Vidmastereon @ArdainianRight @coded_artist I always find it funny how Ocarina of Time's many delays tricked me into thinking that a game suffering multiple delays meant the devs had something truly special on their hands, and wanted to polish their game until it sparkled.

@ChristiJunior @beardalaxy @ArdainianRight @coded_artist for games like oot am always curious what causes a game to get delayed
Did they really need more time to finish or was it an outside factor like data loss, failing quality control tests, or something critical completely broke

@Vidmastereon @ArdainianRight @beardalaxy @coded_artist Early OoT looks very different from what we ended up with, and I truly believe the Zelda team at some point became Inspired to the point where where Nintendo realized that they had pure gold on their hands and just let them cook. Remember, we're talking about the kind of Inspiration that allowed the same team to make Majora's Mask in just 18 months.

@ChristiJunior @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @coded_artist super smash bros melee was made in 13 months. Isn't that insane? I mean, it's a little broken, but it's still an incredibly good game by all accounts.

@beardalaxy @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @coded_artist I mean, yes and no, Melee was a giant upgrade over Smash 64, but I can certainly see the various corners being cut (like all the Clone characters). It's also easier to make that kind of "bigger, better, more" sequel to a bare-bones, high-potential first entry in a fighting game franchise than to make a truly unique adventure game that ends up being so different from its predecessor.

I also believe Melee was one of those games where Iwata had to step in and assist the developers in order to get the game out on time.

@ChristiJunior @beardalaxy @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @coded_artist Melee had as much corners as possible cut, not to mention there are things that weren't finished, balanced or even tested.

Brawl actually had considerable time put into it.

@EdBoatConnoisseur @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @beardalaxy @coded_artist Something people never mention about Melee is how godawful its AI is - even Level 9 CPUs literally don't understand how Mines work for example, and they desperately rush to grab even the crappiest of items at the expense of everything else.

@ChristiJunior @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @beardalaxy @coded_artist They had to make the AI retarded by necessity iirc

@EdBoatConnoisseur @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @beardalaxy @coded_artist Yeah, but that's another that was very noticeably improved in Brawl. Of course, by Smash Ultimate the CPUs were pulling off advanced techniques, and randomly pulling off death-defying spikes.

@ChristiJunior @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @beardalaxy @coded_artist Which fighting game was the one where the AI straight up cheats?

@EdBoatConnoisseur @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @beardalaxy @coded_artist I was of the impression that a lot of them do that, reading your inputs and shit.

@ChristiJunior @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @beardalaxy @coded_artist I know there have been quite some fighting games where the AI cheats blatantly but iirc there have been like 3 where it was egregiously bad cheap cheating, don't remember which ones off the bat tho so i hope @deVoid can chime in.

@EdBoatConnoisseur @ArdainianRight @ChristiJunior @Vidmastereon @coded_artist @deVoid smash ultimate originally had AI that cheated, you REALLY had to bring out the cheese to beat them and it made unlocking characters really rough lol. They patched it later to make them easier.

@beardalaxy @EdBoatConnoisseur @ArdainianRight @Vidmastereon @coded_artist @deVoid Did they cheat or were the CPUs just good? Players whining about difficulty doesn't necessarily mean much, online whining also caused fucking K. Rool to get nerfed in like the very first balance patch.